Category: Education

Alltop Education

I recently discovered my blog is included in Alltop Education‘s feeds. I’m flattered and grateful. Here’s a bit about Alltop for those that are unfamiliar with it.

“The purpose of Alltop is to help you answer the question, “What’s happening?” in “all the topics” that interest you. You may wonder how Alltop is different from a search engine. A search engine is good to answer a question like, “How many people live in China?” However, it has a much harder time answering the question, “What’s happening in China?” That’s the kind of question that we answer. We do this by collecting the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic. We group these collections — “aggregations” — into individual web pages. Then we display the five most recent headlines of the information sources as well as their first paragraph…You can think of Alltop as the “online magazine rack” of the web.” (Source)

I think it’s worth your time to browse through the listings at Alltop Education and make some additions to your RSS reader.

Related Articles

Talking Ed.: Intro. to K-12 Online Learning

Talking Ed.: K-12 Online Learning

Talking Ed. with Dr. Michael Barbour

Episode 002 (View entire series)

Dr. Michael K. Barbour, Assistant Professor in Instructional Technology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, provides a primer in virtual schooling and online learning. Much of his research focuses on rural K-12 students learning in virtual school environments, specifically how these virtual opportunities can be designed and delivered to be accessible to students with a range of abilities.

{ Video not available }

Connect with Michael

Education at the 2010 Creativity World Forum #cwf2010

I enjoyed the opening session, Creativity Fueling the 21st Century Global Economy. It was a conversation among Daniel Pink, Sir Ken Robinson, & David Pogue. These thought leaders shared their insights on the importance of creativity and innovation in driving both our individual and societal growth.

Event Tag: #cwf2010

At the Creativity World Forum

“The World’s leaders know the future is all about creation and innovation. We must work to transform our world through creative initiatives which lead to a more entrepreneurial and vibrant economy along with a better quality of life for its citizens. Through all these efforts we can: Work to prepare students for jobs that don’t yet exist…encourage innovation for technologies that haven’t been invented yet…in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” (Source)

“Anyone who wants to gather with innovate minds from around the world to gather and share ideas and best practices on commerce, culture, and education. Creativity isn’t just for “creatives” anymore. It’s the driving force behind our greatest ideas, our most comprehensive solutions and our most profitable enterprises.” (Source)
Conference Resources

Event Tag: #cwf2010

A Teacher’s Influence (Quote from Haim Ginott)

I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.

–Haim Ginott

Empty Classroom

Professional Development Meme 2010

I’m a big fan of goal setting. It can provide a road map for the short or long-term and can be an effective motivational strategy. I have set a few professional development goals for this summer and have challenged a few of my friends/colleagues to do the same thing. In 2008 I realized that I could set this up as a blog meme and hopefully encourage some of my online friends to achieve a few items from their To Do Lists. There are a myriad of ways to approach this, but I’ve opted to take the short-term, easy-to-assess approach, but I’ll leave some wiggle room for you to customize it to meet your needs. The official information is below.

Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2010 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules

NOTE: You do NOT have to wait to be tagged to participate in this meme.

  1. Pick 1-3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
  2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/06/2010).
  3. Post the above directions along with your 1-3 goals on your blog.
  4. Link back/trackback to https://www.clifmims.com/blog/archives/3669.
  5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme2010.
  6. Tag 5 or more bloggers to participate in the meme.
  7. Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
  8. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

My Goals

  1. Read at least 2 of the books on my book wish list.
  2. Implement idea for new blog feature.
  3. Submit at least 1 of the articles currently in progress for review.

I Tag…

Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media (TAISTI)

I’m back in Nashville today for the TAIS Technology Institute. I’m excited about having opportunities to work with and learn from classroom teachers, media specialists, administrators, and more. I’ll be sharing a workshop on Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media. The PowerPoint presentation is below and the full workshop notes are available on my wiki. Note that the links and logos in the PowerPoint presentation are clickable.

Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media (NCTIES)

I’m enjoying the North Carolina Technology in Education Society’s 2010 Conference in Raleigh, NC. I’m excited about being one of the featured speakers and having opportunities to work with and learn from classroom teachers, media specialists, administrators, and more.

Today I’ll be sharing a pre-conference workshop on Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media. This energetic session will demonstrate that with freely available digital technologies students can demonstrate their understanding of course content in multiple ways (images, audio, video, presentations, artwork, and more). Each student’s end product (learning artifact) allows them to personally self-express their understanding/mastery of the content/skills. Although teachers may not be comfortable using all of today’s technology it is important to consider allowing students to use it to communicate their understanding as they are often more naturally able to more fully express themselves with digital media. The PowerPoint presentation is below and the full workshop notes are available on my wiki. Note that the links and logos in the PowerPoint presentation are clickable.